Posted by Aymenn Al-Tamimi on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

Introduction

Compared to how much has been written on the Sunni-Alawite dynamics in the Syrian civil war, little analysis exists on the Druze aspect of the conflict. This study hopes to rectify the deficiency by considering the nature of Druze militias operating in the south of Syria, specifically in Suwayda, Deraa and Damascus governorates where Druze populations are concentrated.

The Principle of Self-Defense

The most prominent name for Druze militias appears to be “Jaysh al-Muwahhideen” (“Army of the Monotheists/Unitarians”), echoing the Druze’s self-description as “muwahhideen” emphasizing the strict unity of God. Most notably, here is a video from the beginning of this year of a statement from a “Jaysh al-Muwahhideen” militia in Jabal al-Arab (Mountain of the Arabs), also known as “Jabal ad-Druze”: a mountainous area of Suwayda governorate primarily inhabited by Druze.

Figure 1: Statement of “Jaysh al-Muwahhideen” in Jabal al-Arab.

In the video, the speaker declares that the army is “under the leadership of Abu Ibrahim Ismail al-Tamimi…we are the Muslim Unitarian Druze sect…we have been and continue to be defenders of our property and sons, and protectors for them.”

He also characterizes the struggle as a “jihad” but it is framed in purely defensive terms: that is, anyone who commits aggression on the Druze land of Jabal al-Arab- regardless of his/her affiliation- will suffer consequences at the hands of the Jaysh al-Muwahhideen, for they are not afraid of fighting in defence of their people. The statement was released in light of attacks on Druze in Suwayda governorate at the hands of gangs coming from Deraa, including the kidnapping of Druze youth referenced in the video.

The reference to my fellow Tamimi tribesman Abu Ibrahim Ismail al-Tamimi is an important part of Druze identity here. Abu Ibrahim was an early Druze leader who succeeded Hamza ibn Ali, who is considered to be the founder of the Druze sect during the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim in the eleventh century. While Hamza is thought to embody the principle of al-‘aql (“mind”) in Druze doctrine, Abu Ibrahim represents nafs (“soul”). Within Jaysh al-Muwahhideen social media circles, one finds the name of “Jaysh Abu Ibrahim” being used alongside Jaysh al-Muwahhideen.

Figure 5: Another photo from Jabal al-Sheikh of Jaysh Abu Ibrahim/Jaysh al-Muwahhideen fighters.Figure 6: Anonymous Druze militiamen advertised on one Jaysh al-Muwahhideen page as the “forces of Abu Ibrahim…we do not attack, but we also don’t allow anyone to attack us.”Figure 7: Druze militiaman. Photo from a Jaysh al-Muwahhideen/Abu Ibrahim page.

The video linked to above illustrates the main Druze priority in the Syrian civil war: namely, to protect the community’s land and honor. This principle is corroborated by interviews I conducted with the activists behind a Jaysh al-Muwahhideen Facebook page and a purely online support page called “Katiba al-Muwahhideen”(“Battalion of the Unitarians”). Thus, the former stressed that the Druze militia is not concerned with “attacking the terrorists, but defense of land and honor (not aggression). We only defend.” The latter similarly emphasized defending the Druze online.

Showing Support for Assad

While the focus on self-defense suggests political neutrality in theory (and indeed, the Katiba stated to me that they are not affiliated with any political faction), in practice the Druze militias will side with the local strong actor who can guarantee the preservation of Druze land.

Combined with concern regarding the likes of Jabhat al-Nusra,[i] who have for many months played a key role in fighting on the Deraa front in particular,[ii] working with a variety of factions, and apparently being responsible for a recent bomb attack in Suwayda city, it follows that Jaysh al-Muwahhideen circles make a show of demonstrating Druze loyalty to the Assad regime.

Thus, the Katiba affirmed to me that in Jabal al-Arab and Jabal al-Sheikh, “people’s committees for the protection of villages and towns” have been formed to fight against “terrorism,” working “in cooperation with the Syrian army.” The Katiba also praised the Syrian army as non-sectarian, claiming that “the Syrian Arab Army is for all Syria. In it are Druze, Alawites, Sunnis, and Christians. Not only Druze. We [i.e. the Druze of Jabal al-Arab and Suwayda, where the activists are based] have brought forth a thousand martyrs in the Syrian Arab Army in the defense of the nation and we are prepared to bring forth more.”

In a similar vein, the Jaysh al-Muwahhideen social media circles feature imagery closely tying the Syrian Druze community to Assad, as can be seen from a selection below.

Figure 8: Procession featuring the Syrian and Druze flags side-by-side, along with a portrait of Bashar al-Assad in front. Put up by a Jaysh al-Muwahhideen page in commemoration of the martyrs from the Druze town of Arna in the Jabal al-Sheikh area.

Figure 9: Syrian army soldier indicating his Druze identity.

Figure 10: Jaysh al-Muwahhideen graphic linking the Druze with Assad’s Syria. This was put up on 9 October to celebrate an attack by the Syrian army on rebel bases in Jabatha al-Khashab, among other places, in Quneitra region.Figure 11: Another graphic from Jaysh al-Muwahhideen circles showing the loyalty of the Druze of Jabal al-Sheikh to the regime.Figure 12: A Jaysh al-Muwahhideen graphic tying Assad’s Syria and the Druze.Figure 13: Rally in the summer from Jabal al-Sheikh area in support of the Syrian army, featuring Druze and Syrian flags side-by-side.

An important aspect of the concepts of Druze loyalty to the Syrian nation is anti-colonialism, and the Druze role in uprisings against Ottoman and French rule. Hence, the Katiba affirmed to me that “all in Syria know that we [the Druze] do not attack anyone, we only defend, thus we fought Ottoman and French colonization and expelled them from our land.” The fighting against the Ottomans is referring to the multiple Druze revolts against the Ottomans.[iii]

In 1842, there was a revolt against direct Ottoman rule under ‘Umar Pasha following on from conflict with the Maronites. Later, Druze peasant agitation beginning in 1888 developed into a revolt by 1889 in response to repeated attempts by Ottoman authorities to bring Jabal al-Hawran (later to become Jabal ad-Druze, with widespread Druze settlement in the latter half of the 19th century) under direct Ottoman rule from Damascus. The revolt ultimately failed as Ottoman troops poured into Jabal al-Hawran and bombarded Suwayda in 1890.

Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, refusal by the Druzes of Jabal to take part in a census ordered in 1908 led to a full-scale Ottoman invasion of the Jabal, followed by disarmament, conscription of Druze into the Ottoman army, and execution of a number of Druze sheikhs. However, Ottoman troops withdrew by 1911, which meant the Druze could revert to autonomy.

While the Druze came to support the “Arab Revolt” in the First World War, dissatisfaction with French rule led to a Druze revolt in 1925 that then took on a nationalist element spurred on by some of the Druze chieftains’ sympathy with Arab nationalism. Thus in 1926, Druze leader Sultan al-Atrash insisted that the Druze would not lay down arms unless the French recognized the “complete independence of Syria.”

Although the revolt ultimately failed in 1927 and led to the designation of a separate Jabal ad-Druze state, the revolt had inspired a younger generation of Druze with nationalist romanticism- just as many younger Alawites were beginning to adopt ideas of Syrian nationalism- and by 1936 Jabal ad-Druze was incorporated into Syria.

Sentiment about union with Syria was of course sharply divided among the Druze, as was the case among the Alawites. During the 1936 negotiations, both Alawite and Druze leaders sent petitions insisting on remaining separate from Syria, and appealing to Jewish PM Leon Blum’s supposed Zionist sentiments. For the Druze militia circles today, however, it is the unionist side that is commemorated.

Figure 14: Jaysh al-Muwahhideen graphic commemorating Sultan al-Atrash, the Druze chieftain who became a Syrian nationalist leader in 1925-7.Figure 15: A photo circulated in Jaysh al-Muwahhideen circles commemorating the Druze role in the 1925-7 revolt against the French.

Druze Martyrs

Essential to tying the Druze community to the Assad regime is the commemoration of Druze martyrs both from the irregular militias and the Syrian army. Below is a selection of some of those fallen Druze fighters.

Figure 18: Khalid Jamal ash-Sha’arani, from the Druze village of ad-Dur in Suwayda governorate, killed on 12 November in the Damascus countryside.
Figure 19: Basil Jihad al-Dimashqi, born in the Druze village of al-Bathīna, Suwayda governorate, in 1994. Martyred on 5 November fighting for the Syrian army in Raqqa governorate.

Figure 20: Kefah Hassan al-Masri: a Druze from Suwayda killed fighting for the Syrian army in Jaramana, Damascus governorate, on 31 October.Figure 21: Raed Ibrahim Baraka, from Suwayda and killed fighting for the Syrian army in Deraa governorate on 27 October. Note the strong emphasis on his Druze identity with the Druze symbol in the top right-hand corner, along with his Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) affiliation in the top left-hand corner.

Figure 22: Bassem Mohammed as-Safadi, a soldier from Suwayda killed fighting for the Syrian army in Deraa on 16 May. Note the distinctive Druze moustache.

Figure 23: Hussein al-Maqat, a soldier from the Druze village of Amran in Suwayda governorate, killed at the age of 21 fighting in the Zamlaka, rural Damascus. Death announced on 22 August.Figure 24: Abu Talal and Abu al-Laith, two Druze fighters killed in Jaramana, Damascus area. Note the Jaysh al-Muwahhideen label, suggesting overlap between the Syrian army and the Druze militia group. Note in general that the Jaysh al-Muwahhideen/Abu Ibrahim pages frequently put up photos of Druze martyrs for the Syrian army.

Besides these photos, one can find a video dedicated to the martyrs of the Druze town of Arna in Jabal al-Sheikh area.

Conclusion: Separatism? Alliance with Israel?

It would be a mistake to characterize all Druze who have taken up arms in the Syrian civil war as staunchly pro-regime. Some form of distinction from the above evidence can be made between Druze irregulars and those who fight in the Syrian army- principally on the basis that the former are defined by their anonymity.

At the same time, one must be skeptical of narratives pointing to a supposedly growing Syrian Druze separatist trend. For instance, Hussein Ibish contends that Druze “militias are becoming increasingly independent and generally no longer work with government forces.” There is no evidence to support this view.

On the contrary, the support for Assad emphasized in Jaysh al-Muwahhideen/Abu Ibrahim media circles (including those featuring anonymous Druze fighters), together with the testimony of Katiba al-Muwahhideen, the apparent Jaysh al-Muwahhideen martyrdoms in Jaramana, and the large and continuous stream of Druze martyrdoms for the Syrian army point to three things.

First, of the Druze who have taken up arms, a majority have done so on the side of the Assad regime. Second, there are still generally close ties between Druze irregulars and the Syrian army, mainly under the guise of people’s protection committees. Third, even if actually autonomous, Druze militiamen generally want to show ties of loyalty to the regime and the Syrian nation.

Could this all change? Yes. A loss of willingness to support the regime might occur, for example, if it were being perceived that regime forces are losing much ground and on an irreversible and major retreat from Suwayda and Deraa governorates. At the present time, nothing points to such a picture on the battlefield. Druze irregulars might also turn decisively against the regime if, say, the Syrian army were forcing Druze off their land to take up firing positions against rebels. Yet this seems unlikely.

We should equally dismiss the notion touted recently in some Israeli press circles of a Druze state emerging from the fragmentation of Syria and aligning with Israel. Besides the problems of the viability of a Druze state (such as the means of supporting an economy), Druze in Syria fall in line with most of the Syrian Arab population (including Alawites and Christians) in having an existential hatred of Israel: that is, not wanting Israel to exist in any form. Indeed, the Jaysh al-Muwahhideen circles continue to highlight the issue of the “occupied Golan.”

From the Israeli side, experience has shown that getting involved in multipolar civil wars by propping up one side- as was the case in Lebanon- ends in disaster. In the long-run, the rebel presence in Suwayda, Deraa and Damascus governorates is unlikely to be purged completely. Even in the event of a peace agreement entailing de facto partition, the Assad regime is likely to retain the southern and western areas of Syria. Israeli pundits’ hopes of minority allies remain illusory, as Israeli officials maintain a more sober policy of overall neutrality while launching airstrikes to prevent those who might wish to wage war on Israel from acquiring new weaponry and providing occasional medical aid to refugees.

To sum up, the Druze community in Syria as a whole remains tied to the regime, whether out of genuine pro-Assad sentiment or belief in the regime as its only viable protector,[iv] and there is unlikely to be a profound shift in the orientation of the Syrian Druze community, at least in the near future.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His website is http://www.aymennjawad.org. Follow on Twitter: @ajaltamimi

[ii] The increasing prominence of Jabhat al-Nusra on the Deraa front has recently been noted by some analysts (e.g. Kirk Sowell). Previously, some saw Deraa as an example of a shift to a more ‘mainstream’/Salim Idriss SMC-aligned insurgency. I would clarify that while Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham may be smaller numerically than in the north and east, nothing supports the idea of a contrast whereby southern rebels are more likely to be hostile to these jihadi factions than in the north.The picture is rather of mixed views on the whole. At any rate, there is a risk of downplaying Jabhat al-Nusra’s role in Deraa in earlier months (see my articles here and here). The group has consistently maintained overall good working relations with a variety of rebel factions in Deraa.

[iii] In the account of the anti-colonial Druze history narrative that follows I am reliant on Kais Firro’s “A History of the Druzes,” Brill (Leiden, 1992).

[iv] To be contrasted perhaps with an overall display of neutrality earlier on when the outcome of the unrest in Syria seemed highly uncertain.

A big round of applause to that charismatic Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, who has reduced a backward, autocratic state into something WORSE: a killing field made up of hundreds of roaming gangs and terrorists.

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

Our patrons reviewed the material presented in this latest post posted by the owner of the site and his helpers. Our well informed benefactors once again came to the unavoidable conclusion that the material, photos and videos presented in the main posts are sheer propaganda seeking in essence to polish the ugly face of the murderous regime, implying in the process a clear desperate attempt to spread propaganda on behalf of the falling and desperate regime of outlawed perverted criminals of the outcast so-called Assad. In general, the material presented has no bearings whatsoever on the interests of Syria and its people who are fighting the most important war on behalf of all Mankind, the existential fight against humankind archenemy, the Serpent-Head and its proxies. Needless to say, the acts of fabrication and propaganda of this site’s administrators fall squarely and evenly under the definitions of aiding and abetting of criminals of the worst kind in human history. Our benefactors firmly believe that any new posts will only reinforce the same cheap propaganda fueled by the site owner and others who write on his behalf.

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AMMAN (Reuters) – Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured a suburb of Damascus on Wednesday, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks, activists said.

The fall of the rebel-held town of Hujaira, next to a Shi’ite shrine where pro-Assad militia from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon are based, occurred after loyalist forces overran a series of Sunni Muslim suburbs in the area in recent weeks defended by Islamist rebels who include al Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists.

Activist Rami al-Sayyed said fighters from the Qatar-backed Ahfad al-Rasul brigade as well as the al Qaeda affiliates al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, withdrew from Hujaira into Hajar al-Aswad, a dense neighbourhood closer to the centre of capital, after being pounded by artillery and air strikes for weeks.

“Southern districts that have been under rebel control for more than a year are falling one by one. There is no unified command and morale has been hit. Hajar al-Aswad and a series of towns in the hands of the resistance in the south and southwest edge of Damascus are now exposed,” Sayyed said from the region.

Excellent article that brings some light on another minority group that remained loyal to Bashar al Assad’s secular ruling and who is opposed to the ‘Islamo-sunnization’ of Syria that the opposition and its ‘benefactors’ have been aiming at right from the start of the so called ‘revolution’.
No wonder our local Guided and Demented Kingdom’s propagandist is unhappy…

The puppet ‘transitional government’ in exile in Gaziantep makes more promises.
Obviously there is no safe place in Syria where they can have their HQ. They have lots of enemies and few friends within Syria.

BEIRUT – The opposition Syrian National Coalition announced a new government this week, after months of delays, facing challenges on the ground from Kurds seeking autonomy and al-Qaida groups that reject its authority.

The interim government is under pressure to quickly provide services to citizens living in large swaths of rebel-held territory, particularly in Syria’s north.

But the fractious internal politics of the coalition, along with the strength of al-Qaida-affiliated jihadists on the ground and advances by regime troops all pose key challenges for the new government.

Members of the coalition acknowledge that the government’s first priority will be to prove itself by offering badly needed public services.
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On Monday, the coalition announced the selection of nine ministers, though several posts were left empty after members failed to agree on names.

An interim prime minister, moderate Islamist Ahmed Tomeh, had already been chosen for the post on Sept. 14.

Uthman al-Dawi will take on the job of local administration and humanitarian aid, Fayez Zaher that of justice, Elias Warde energy and Walid al-Zohbi infrastructure and agriculture.

The Cabinet includes a single woman, Taghrid Hajali, who will take the culture and family portfolio.

The coalition failed to agree on who would fill the posts of the interior, health and housing ministries.

Speaking in Istanbul on Tuesday, Tomeh said civil order, security and basic human needs are to be the top priorities in zones under rebel control.

He said his government would be one of “work and not words . . . and will have as its top priorities establishing security and civil order in the liberated zones of Syria and to respond to vital needs.”
,,,
He said they would also set up a special agency to provide aid to Palestinian refugees inside Syria and abroad.

The government is coming late to providing services on the ground. In Kurdish areas, local councils have taken over administration and security, providing several rare spots of quiet and relative normality.

And on Tuesday they announced the formation of their own autonomous regional administration.

Meanwhile, jihadist groups including Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have been busy for months distributing food and even school supplies.

Groups like the al-Nusra and ISIS do not recognize the authority of the coalition, which is based in Turkey.

“The prime minister is in contact with the forces present on the ground and many of them, particularly those who are acting under the flag of the coalition, have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the government and protect its officials to allow them to supply services to citizens,” Aqbiq said.

“There are terrorist groups like ISIS that are affiliated with al-Qaida and refuse to cooperate with the government, which represent a challenge we will have to confront,” he added.

The main Syrian opposition alliance dubbed as “hostile” forces Wednesday Kurdish groups that control large swathes of the country’s north after they proclaimed provisional self-rule.
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But mounting violence between the Kurds and Al-Qaeda loyalists — who form a major battlefield component of the Sunni Arab-dominated rebellion — has sparked a deepening rift between the Kurds and the mainstream opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

“The PYD is a group hostile to the Syrian revolution,” the National Coalition, the opposition group recognised by most Arab and Western governments, said in its statement formalising the breach with the main Kurdish militia.

“Its declaration of self-rule amounts to a separatist act shattering any relationship with the Syrian people who are battling to achieve a free, united and independent state, liberated from tyranny and sovereign over all its territory,” the alliance said.

It accused the main Kurdish faction of “attacking units of the Free Syrian Army… and of shirking the struggle against Assad’s regime.

This public breach threatened to add grist to the Damascus government’s longstanding argument that its nominally secular leadership provides vital protection to the Kurdish, Druze and Christian minorities, as well as the Alawite community of Assad himself.

So what is Russia’s rationale? We know Hafez’s brother Rifaat’s reason. He would be worried and willing to try anything to dodge his inevitable indictment on war crimes for the 1982 massacre of 30,000 people in Hama. The Europeans have already started chasing all his stolen millions in court.

It’s already choking educated and skilled Iranians who are desperate to get out of the place and start new lives anywhere they can make a living – which they can’t in Iran because the country’s wealth has been systematically looted and wasted by the regime so it can stay in power.

Fabius was at the front of Western ministers pressing for NATO to repeat its Libya performance in Syria, after the Aleppo gas attack and the Damascus five months later–both times claiming certainty, from special sources, that Assad had ordered the attack; both times out ahead of US policy and embarrassing the US by calling the “red line” bluff; and both times urging what Netanyahu was more quietly indicating as his wish.

Now he’s doing the same with the Iran negotiations: an accord almost achieved, but Fabius steps in and says no. Without this obstruction, it seems possible a preliminary agreement would have been announced. The words Fabius and France appear very prominently in the Times coverage today of the stalled discussions.

So Ayatollah, the supreme leader, is nothing but a theif stealing people properties. Time for the Shiaa to denounce him and find another Ayatollah to follow..-

Greed and love of power are expected human traits, but the thief Ayatollah should be punished harshly for his thefts because he also claims a divine component and by doing so brainwashing his follower to achieve his agenda.

The Lebanese and Iraqi Shiaa killing Syrians in the name of God should realize they are brainwashed victims of a theif and there is no 72 virgins waiting for them…

More than an Enemy – Exported Insanityhttp://journal-neo.org/2013/11/14/more-than-an-enemy-exported-insanity/
An unhappy “threesome” of deceivers, Piers Morgan, Cristiana Amanpour and Wolf Blitzer, all of CNN, stand at the pinnacle of their craft, conduits for false news, conspiracy theory and smear tactics on behalf of a consortium of intelligence agencies and special interests dedicated to disorder and entropy……
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Upon close examination, CNN’s agenda never demonstrates a discernible direction other than warfare and chaos, carefully orchestrated to profit special interest market sectors in oil and gas, defense along with banking and insurance.

Their existence, in itself, is proof that a worldwide conspiracy threatening every man, woman and child on the planet exists though hardly Islamists, al Qaeda or the nuclear armed Israeli’s and North Koreans they conveniently ignore.

CNN, when put under a microscope, is simply a “mouthpiece” for organized crime, a “super-Mafia” that has long proven itself able to appoint and dismiss world leaders at the snap of a rifle bolt.

The corruption of the mullahs is not a new story, ask any Iranian expat and you will know what I mean, however I do not see how is that different from the thieves at the GCC and how the story is relevant to the Syrian conflict.
Tamimi’s work and other similar pieces lead to the core problem in Syria:
The absence of a national army that is loyal to Syria only and not to the ruling regime or a royal family. Without a national and representative army that listen to a unified civilian government Syria will become another Iraq assuming that we are not there yet.
From day one both sides of the conflict, especially the regime, wanted the exclusive rights to rule the country and own the army, until this unacceptable attitude ends no conference or conferences will bring peace to Syria. Even if Assad dominates, a big if, he will not be able to stop the war or end the insurgency as long as he and his supporters discount the opposing side which also needs to end its campaign to destroy the only body today that can keep Syria in one piece: the army. This army has the key to end the conflict, it always did, go back to the original writings on this blog and see why.
As for freedom, elections and democracy, these drugs can not work over night or over a year, countries that lived under dictatorship and had no credible institutions have to climb the ladder instead of trying to jump to second floor. End the war first.

Seems the rebels in Aleppo have been rattled & unnerved by the recent rapid advances of the Syrian army now at the eastern outskirts. The rebels take their revenge on the civilians in Aleppo. They fired a shell that killed 8 civilians & wounded dozens in front of the Pulman hotel in west Aleppo.

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

Our patrons reviewed some of the comments in this section. While they expressed approval for the successes of the Syrian Revolution fighters in eliminating criminals of hezboola and other Shiite terrorists, they at the same time expressed disapproval at keeping the word martyr when quoting the news. This word is not an appropriate description of these criminals and it should be stricken out from the quote.

Our patrons also observed that when Muawiya, Yazid or any of their ancestors or progenies are mentioned, they should be shown the highest form of respect.

The full-scale assault on rebel held Aleppo and, perhaps, a key battle that may determine the military conflict becomes “many ups and downs in events on the ground.” More revealing, we hear that the Assad regime “is always focused on making gains on the ground.”

This is the same forum where the U.S. declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization on August 10, 2012. This is also the same forum where, on May 18, the Department of State condemned Iran’s assistance to Syria, which it alleged helps “the [Assad] regime brutally crack down on the opposition, kill civilians, and is contributing to regional instability, notably in Lebanon.”

The United States is no longer using Syria to fight a proxy war against Iran. That’s over. Turkey’s Erdogan regime, the Saudi’s, and the other camp followers of the throw Assad out campaign are stuck holding the bag, left to their own devices. To borrow a phrase, the United States has no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests. In this case, it is the rapprochement with Iran. –

I disagree with you. Bashar al Assad and the Syrian goverment have learned a lot in 2.5 years.
Forget about the expat opposition. They have proven to be worthless and are getting very little sympathy from the Syrians.
They’ll have a very little role to play in Syria’s future.

The Syrian government will have to deal with its virtual allies in the conflict: the Kurds, the Druzes, the Christians, the Alawites, the moderate Sunnis and the Shias as well as its enemy the ‘moderate’ FSA. They all have a common a enormous task: Get rid of Al Qaeda and other islamists to build a participative secular system. Therefore they will have to join forces and that would create a dynamic, previously inimaginable in the old single party ‘regime’.

The second factors are Russia and Iran. Both will exert pressure on the Syrian government to become more participative while keeping a certain level of authoritarism, indispensable in such a complex mix of religions and races.
In Lebanon, similar in its compositio they have opted for a strict repartition of the political power. It is far from the ideal and while it seems to be accepted, it is creating lots of friction.
In Egypt, they are getting into a military authoritarian system, similar to Turkey before the AKP.
I tend to think that Syria will be also ruled by a military system that would represent all the sects and the ethnies until it is able like Turkey to grow into a ‘democracy’.
The military is the only unifying and secular institutions that could handle Syria after this catastrophic ‘revolution.
Iran and Russia will be in favor of such a system and the West will tolerate it as long as they see it as path to peace and future democratical system, as they are now tolerating Egypt’s military ruling.

Commentary on the situation in Syria generally revolves around a handful of well worn subjects; the regime’s use of chemical weapons, how the West finds the regime abhorrent, the fact that Russia and China are supporting such a regime, or that there is no viable or clear cut plan to move out of this quagmire. This article puts all such arguments aside and claims that there is an underlying and agreed upon current that places almost everybody involved on the same page with regards the desired outcome in Syria. This desired outcome, (regardless of any rhetoric,) is that Assad does not lose. Simply put, Assad will not lose in Syria because there are very few countries that want him to, although let us be clear that ‘not losing’ is very distinct from actually ‘winning’.

The options for how the conflict can play out are as follows.

1. An Assad loss and probable coalescence of a fanatical Sunni government.

2. An Assad victory.

3. Assad not losing.
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To damage this air of moral superiority in supporting the Assad regime is a non-starter, which is why the USA, Europe and the West will not admit to an Assad victory being the most favorable outcome. Instead, they will keep emphasising their moral superiority and claiming that the Assad regime must go. They will support the rebels just enough to keep them in the fight, while at the same time acting against the Assad regime just enough to highlight and stoke their “exceptionalism”, but never enough to truly damage the regime. Assad will not lose because very few countries honestly want him to, and very few countries will act sincerely work towards an Assad loss. Thus, we can expect a long, drawn out civil war in Syria.

Thinking further, we can also reasonably expect that in the long run the chances of Assad winning are very good. Assad losing is the outcome that everyone is trying to avoid and some (Russia & Iran) are actively working towards an Assad victory.
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“Those who dream they’re going to Geneva to be given the keys to Damascus are stupid people without any political weight who understand nothing about politics and live in cloud cuckoo land,” Zohbi told the official SANA news agency.

“Discussions at the Geneva II conference will take place on the basis of the June 30, 2012 statement. It’s a clear statement with a precise framework and conditions,” he added.

The expat opposition: More promises and wishful thinking but no more ‘toppling’ of Bashar al Assad as a pre-condition to Geneva. After 2.5 years, 120,00 dead and billions of destruction, the opposition realized that no one wants that

Syrian opposition leaders to discuss Geneva II with armed factions

http://www.aawsat.net/2013/11/article55322362
Syrian National Coalition head says organization “will reach a unified decision” with fighters on international conference
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Istanbul, Asharq Al-Awsat—The head of the main Syrian opposition coalition said on Wednesday that he was optimistic that rebels inside Syria could be persuaded to accept plans for an international peace conference.
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Ahmad Tomeh, who was selected by the Coalition as Interim Prime Minister in the new government, said it was a launch-pad for the “era of a new Syrian Republic,” and urged the Syrian people to support it.

He thanked Saudi Arabia for supporting the Syrian people and thanked Qatar, Turkey, Gulf States and Libya for providing help to the opposition. He said “our transitional government will pave the way for the return to Syria, and we will fight our battle on all levels,” adding that “we will do our utmost to rebuild Syria and we will respect all international charters and treaties.”

Tomeh said the fact the interim government was working from Turkish territory while the Assad regime controlled most Syrian cities would not deter him and that “the authority of the regime is in decline and [the formation of] this government means that the revolution now has its institutions and will move to the liberated areas soon.”

“We have three priorities, the most important of which is to open humanitarian channels to deliver aid to the besieged areas, second, the release of detainees, and third, the establishment of a transitional governmental body,” he added.

In regards to the Geneva II, Tomeh said that the opposition’s precondition of a guarantee of Assad’s departure was no longer a priority for countries backing conference.

BEIRUT: Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have publicly displayed in Aleppo what they claim was the decapitated head of an Iraqi Shiite pro-regime militiaman, amid claims the dead man was actually a rebel fighter.

A YouTube video emerged Wednesday purporting to show militants from ISIS displaying the man’s severed head in front of a small crowd in the city of Aleppo.

The contents of the video could not be independently verified, but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that while ISIS militants were responsible for the grisly incident, they had in fact killed an anti-regime rebel from an Islamist militia.

The Observatory said the man was wounded in recent fighting near Aleppo, and was overheard by ISIS militants muttering prayers to the Imams Ali and Hussein, who are venerated by Shiites, while under the influence of anesthetic and awaiting an operation.

The Observatory speculated that the man was merely repeating the last thing he heard before being wounded near Base 80, namely the battle cries of Iraqi and Lebanese Shiites fighting alongside the regime.

Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that Turkey and Syria disagree on the sequencing of priorities in Syria. “Turkey wanted to get rid of [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad first and deal with all the rest later on. It was just the opposite for the US,” he argued.

According to Dr. Behlül Özkan, an international relations lecturer at Marmara University, arming the opposition was the biggest mistake Turkey made in Syria as it turned Syria into a neighboring Afghanistan.

The announcement of an interim administration that aims to carve out an autonomous Syrian Kurdish region was only “provisional” until there was a viable solution to Syria’s civil war, Saleh Muslim, head of the main Syrian Kurdish group Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), has said.
…
“About 3,000 of those Salafists have been killed. At the beginning they were strong, but now they aren’t so strong,” Muslim, whose son was recently killed fighting Islamists, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “We have found no allies and paid for our own bullets.”

Muslim said the PYD had received aid, money and weapons from the Iraq-based Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) as well as the terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.

When asked if the recent successes could embolden Syrian Kurdish forces to go beyond majority-controlled Kurdish areas, Muslim said they had no desire to head to Damascus to help topple Assad, but would aid all those in areas where Kurds and Arabs lived together.

“We are willing to go to places where we are living together. It is not our job to go to areas where there are no Kurds,” he said.

Muslim said about 30 percent of Syria’s oil wells were under Kurdish control, but none were currently producing any oil, and there were no immediate plans to bring them into operation.

The Kurdish gains indirectly benefit Assad and his Shiite Muslim allies, as they mean more territory slipping out of Sunni Muslim rebel hands two-and-a-half years into the revolt against Assad’s rule.

In recent days there’s been alot of talk about the possibility of a political settlement to the Syrian conflict. Opposition demands that Assad be removed from power as a precondition to any negotiations, have been described as “outdated” and failing to “to reflect the situation on the ground”.

Well, let’s take this viewpoint to its logical conclusion. Let us, based on the regime’s actions and behavior in areas it has reoccupied during the conflict, areas like Homs, Hama, Idlib, Telkelakh, Daraya, and its treatment of the people in those areas, see if we can deduce what another 30 years under Assad would be like in a post-conflict Syria.

عل حل………لللللللللللللللللللللاق
…….
With all evidence considered, the intelligence community found itself with numerous skeptics in the ranks, leading to sharp exchanges with the Director of Central Intelligence John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. A number of analysts threatened to resign as a group if their strong dissent was not noted in any report released to the public, forcing both Brennan and Clapper to back down. This led to the White House issuing its own assessment, completely divorcing the process from any direct connection to the intelligence community. The spectacle of CIA Director George Tenet sitting behind Secretary of State Colin Powell in the United Nations, providing him with credibility as Powell told a series of half-truths, would not be repeated.

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

We need to offer congratulations to the heroic fighters of the Glorious Syrian Revolution for the great successes they achieved in the last few days against the evil ragtags of Ass-head and Shiite terrorists of Hezboola. These successes were achieved on several fronts from the North all the way to the South.

No doubt, the spirits of Yazid and Muawiya (RA) are guiding the heores of the revolution and will continue to do so until Shiite terrorism is exterminated.

An exchange between the Qatari and Syrian rep at the UN Human Right organization. Politics aside, seeing a Syrian woman speaking up in a room full of men, regardless of the substance of her answers, with such confidence was a reminder why it is such a travesty to put Syrians and the Bedouins of the GCC in the same camp and call them all “Arabs” :

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

Once again, the Guided Kingdom proves to be a minaret of Guidance for the whole world.

The world hunger for much needed Guidance uniquely provided by the Guided Kingdom shows no signs of abating. The world today unanimously voted (185 to none) the Guided Kingdom to occupy an executive chair of the world organization of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.

Another compelling reason for Syrians to become more and more eager to emulate the Guided Kingdom and to seek to make Syria a junior member in the successful GCC which receives constant Guidance from the Guided Kingdom. Only through destroying he Serpent-head of Ass-head would Syrians be able to achieve their aspiration and become truly Guided.

The people of Damascus are being punished by terrorists, many off whom are not from Damascus or not even Syrian. Many of you ,and rightfully so, denounced the regime for bombing civilian areas , even that they have presence of armed rebels , but that is exactly what the rebels are doing, mortars attacks are now random and nobody will be able to call that anything except terrorism. Despite the pain and suffering inflicted on families who lost children , most understand that this is a clear sign that rebels are done and have nothing else left to do. People are angry at the regime for not being able to stop the terrorists who killed 15 children in few days but the price to be paid by rebels and their supporters politically will be much higher, those thugs have lost support from the same people they claimed they are protecting.
كل ثوره و انتم بخير

Reuters Published an article on how corrupt pro regime traders are making money from importing food while prices in Syria have skyrocketed despite the fall of the dollar:

Using front companies and shipping lines, a discreet commercial and logistical network is now emerging, which aims not only to procure food commodities but to generate big returns for members of Assad’s inner circle, trade sources familiar with the matter say.
Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin and top financial ally, together with Ayman Jaber, another prominent figure subject to international sanctions, are among those involved in the trade through intermediaries, the trade sources said.
“Key figures in the regime have created front companies and are using shipping lines to secure food supplies into Syria. This is also lucrative business and everyone involved stands to gain from it,” one of the sources said.

That was a excellent response to that Qatari Clown.
All Syrians and Syrian women should be proud of what and how this Syrian diplomate replied that that filthy hypocrite by telling him that the Syrian people will take action against Qatar for its support of Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorits.

The opposition Aleppo News Network said in a statement that the raid on Thursday targeted an army base that rebels had captured, killing commander Youssef al-Abbas of the Qatari-backed al-Tawhid Brigades, one of the biggest armed opposition groups.

Abbas was known by the nom de guerre Abu al-Tayyeb.

Tawhid’s leadership was holding a meeting in the base when the raid occurred, the statement said.

What exactly is so honourable and proud in lying, deceiving and blaming everyone but the regime for the travesty that is Syria today? There is absolutely nothing to proud of in that video posted by Ghufran at 55. Smart ass replies that try to shift the blame is garbage politics. It is what children do to avoid their parents scorn, not what adults do, especially on the international arena! What a shameful and repugnant woman.

As for the supposed superiority I am afraid us Syrians need to get off of our high horse and learn a thing or two from those “GCC Clowns and Bedouins”. Just looking at the 100 most powerful woman of the Arab world you can see where Syria stands in comparison to the Gulf:

(Hint out of the top ten, 8 are occupied by those GCC Bedouins and non by Syrians. Out off 100 only 6 spots are occupied by Syrian women while 62 by those bedioun clowns. Even Lebanon fairs better than Syria with 12)

Al-Qaida-linked groups are straining to hold off regime push that could threaten their supply lines to Turkey

Jihadist groups near Aleppo have called for reinforcements to fight the largest regime advance on the city in a 16-month siege, in a looming confrontation likely to test the rebel hardliners who dictate terms in Syria’s far north.

Clashes have taken place in the south-eastern sector of the city, which has remained firmly in opposition hands since rebel groups stormed into eastern Aleppo in mid-July 2012. While the showdown is not yet thought to be the start of a decisive push, it has sharpened focus on the prevalence of extremist groups and how they found their way to the battlefield.

The two main al-Qaida-linked groups – the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra – are straining to hold off a regime push past the Aleppo airport to a military base, known as Base 80. A successful advance beyond this point would threaten rebel supply lines to Turkey, which for more than a year have funnelled militants, weapons, ammunition and food into the far north, in effect turning the area into an emirate within a crumbling nation state.

Now, the first significant regime counterattack is taking shape. Jihadists have allied with mainstream opposition units to battle Syrian troops whose ranks are bolstered with large numbers of militants from a militia comprised mainly of Iraqi militants, called Abu Fadl al-Abbas.

The clashes around Aleppo mark one of the few times in the two-and-a-half-year civil war that major sectarian protagonists have squared up to one another; the rebel-allied al-Qaida groups adopt an extremist Sunni ideology, while the Iraqis are fighting for Assad in the name of Shia Islam.

Russia has started to pay for the catastrophic mistakes it made in Syria, defending the regime of a criminal who guaranteed himself certain defeat. How did Assad manage that? He placed himself in a bloody confrontation with a people who were determined to get rid of him, while he made the perpetuation of his rule–which is contrary to nature—his only objective. That objective convinced him that a minority could forever use oppression to enforce its rule over a majority that rejected it.
….
Russia has now been pushed out of the Middle East by the Americans and the Israelis, because it despised the Arab people and ignored their interests and desires. Russia tied its fate to trivial oppressors who never objected to becoming no more than minor servants of America and Israel’s plans and strategies.

Russia has carried out some truly stupid policies, which Washington deliberately lauded as very smart, policies, in order to make Putin’s fall more painful and more costly—as we can see today.

The deterioration of Saudi Arabia’s political influence has contributed to a growing sense of national decline. King Abdullah’s reform efforts – especially those aimed at curbing the power of the ultra-conservative Wahhabi-Salafi religious establishment – have lost steam, and the deaths of two crown princes have complicated the inter-generational transfer of power.
….
But none of these policies addresses the fundamental challenge facing the Kingdom – namely, the gradual erosion of its wealth (indeed, Saudi Arabia is expected to become a net energy importer by 2030). Given many economic sectors’ lack of competitiveness and the inadequacy of the educational system, the Saudi population – 70% of which is under 35 years old – will experience skyrocketing unemployment in the coming years.

Many Saudis sense a wasted opportunity; despite sitting atop one of history’s most liquid fortunes, the country has failed to become an advanced economy.

Archeologists have found the oldest evidence of chemical warfare yet after studying the bodies of 20 Roman soldiers’ found underground in Syria 70 years ago.

Clues left at the scene revealed the Persians were lying in wait as the Romans dug a tunnel during a siege – then pumped in toxic gas – produced by sulphur crystals and bitumen – to kill all the Romans in minutes.

Dr Simon James, who solved the mystery, said: “It’s very exciting and also quite gruesome. These people died a horrible death.

“The mixture would have produced toxic gases including sulphur dioxide and complex heavy petrochemicals. The victims would have choked, passed out and then died.

“I believe this is the oldest archaeological evidence of chemical warfare ever found. This is the beginning of a particularly nasty history of killing that continues up to the modern day.”

These generalizations are not only unfair and ignorant, but are also naive and self-defeating. While the “civialized” Syrians have been stupidly and brutally killing each others, the GCC nationals are acquiring education and expertise that will allow them in a generation or two to sail by the supposedly civilized “other” Arabs. Mark my words.

The only people from the PERSIAN gulf countries that make it into Syria are the suicide bombers, head cutters and sectarian losers.

Your Sheikha is nothing to me but the daughter of a tribal wahabi sheikh who is active in Wahhabing the world, while wasting a huge fortune.

The role of Qatar into spreading Wahabism into my country Syria is not going to be forgotten. The money they spend to support certain militant groups is not forgotten. Also is not forgotten their stance into stopping any real conversation between SYRIANS.

Read in BBC what Baroness Warsi said about the Christians in the Middle East. What is the role of the men and money coming from the Gulf countries into this?

Yes the Qatari spend money to bring NYU and PACE and Tribecca Film Festival…but what they exported to Syria is money to kill Syrians and an ideology to put Syrians back 1400 years.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are no good to Syria and the Syrian people. The lunatics these countries unleashed on the Syrian people are an example.

They did and are doing this to Iraq. Suicide bomber after another. The only education these guys are having is how to blow yourself and others.

What is the best export of these countries these days: Scientists or suicide bombers?

When someone tells me about the cultural, and educational development in Qatar or Saudi Arabia I have to laugh.

PS: what about human rights in Qatar or Saudi Arabia?

The last video I saw coming from Saudi Arabia was cutting the head of a Magician….

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

The agents of Serpent-head of Ass-head continue the delusional attempt to portray the advanced and much more civilized people of the GCC, who are the TRUE Arabs, and not the so-called fallacy of Baathologists. The people of The ARABIAN Gulf, particularly those of The Guided Kingdom and Qatar are far more civilized and far more advanced than Syrians who suffered irreparable damage and regression during 50 years of slavery imposed on them by the Ass-head.

Syrians would be very lucky if they gain Guidance from the Guided Kingdom under the Guidance of His Majesty, the Guided King, Worldwide Commander of the Faithful.

Are they developing expertise in garbage collection, plumbing and street cleaning? I doubt that.
The young GCC want all to be “managers”, arrogant and spoiled by their authoritarian rulers..
The GCC is totally dependent on foreign workforce. Certainly not a model to follow,

No matter how backwards you might perceive the Gulf to be, they are light years ahead of Syria. And that is not compliment to the Gulf.

And at the same time MJabali, you should scorn Iran for spreading Shia Extremism. Iranian agents and soldiers are killing Syrians, so are Hizballah terrorists and Iraqi militiamen. Even Shia Afghan and Shia Pakistanis are joining the extremism orgy of killing Syrians.

For the record over 100,000 Syrian refugees are being housed not in camps or in squalor but with their families and have full access to the health and education benefits of Saudi Arabia. How many Syrian refugees is Iran hosting?

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up, in order to keep you up to date with current events.

We at Heads-up found Hani Al-Ghazi and his crew, in addition to being Guided, are very advanced and very civilized. Compared to them, Syrians enslaved by Ass-head for 50 years are dinosaurs.

…
The problem at the root of it all is the carelessness of the authorities, who have allowed foreign labor trafficking to flourish in the country. Certainly, there are clandestine workers who used pilgrimage visas to get in, and who managed to get by afterwards by working here. But there are also the victims of the kafala system. From the 1980s onwards, Saudi Arabian businessmen got workers from Africa and Asia to come to the country by promising them work. Once they arrived, they weren’t given any work. Instead, they let them work on the black market in exchange for a monthly sum of money. Other patrons charged expensive fees for work permits which turned out later to be invalid.

Now, to legalize the situation of these illegal workers and become their official sponsors, these patrons have to pay the equivalent of 20,000 Euros per worker, something that businessmen obviously never had the intention to do. These workers have therefore never had the opportunity to sort their legal status out, even during the truce offered by the king. And their children, although born here, also live illegally.

We’re already starting to see the impact that these expulsions are having on daily life : garages, service stations and even electrical servicing shops no longer have workers, because they were all clandestine workers

The only promise there is the collapse of an artificial country under a senile. greedy and backward family leadership.
They can count on that.
The Syrians may not have the money but they have skills, brain and resilience.
I have no worry they will manage very well after this disastrous adventure,

Oh yes! Is it the Syrian government who started this ridiculous “revolution” aimed at ‘toppling’ Bashar al Assad and that ended up with the same loud-voiced opposition leaders, dumped by their allies, crawling to Geneva, and accepting to sit in front of their Nemesis, desperate to get at least a small role in Syria’s future.

After 120,000 dead, billions of destruction, millions of refugees, the opposition has renounced to the main goal of their ‘revolution’. They need to be applauded, that’s a real achievement.

Bashar is here to stay until he and he only decides if he wants to ask for another term. They better get uses to that, you too.

Baku-APA. The Syrian army carried out ” successful” military operations in the central province of Homs, recapturing three towns, the army’s general command said in a statement Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

“Following a successful military operation and precise tactical maneuvers, the army on Friday morning was able to tighten its control over the towns of Hadath, Hawariyen and Muhin and the adjacent depots,” read the statement.

The army has dealt “deadly blows” to the armed groups, killing large numbers of them and destroying hundreds of their vehicles, according to the statement.

The recent achievements have “thwarted the illusions of the terrorists who were dreaming of controlling vital positions in the countryside of Homs,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the army’s general command stressed their resolution to strike the armed groups in Syria with an “iron fist” till the restoration of security and stability to the war-torn country.

The Muhin area is deemed crucial to the army as about 32 arms depots situated there. The rebels tried to move out the weapons but the artillery shelling of the Syrian troops have thwarted the rebels’ attempts.

The recent progress is part of the recent victories the Syrian army and its affiliated militia, including the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, have made on many fronts.

Earlier on Friday, the Syrian state-run media declared the army ‘s victory in the Tal Hasel town southeast of the northern province of Aleppo.

After consolidating in battle-torn Syria, Russia has once again asserted itself in Egypt, taking advantage of the current rift between Cairo and Washington, in the hope of re-emerging as a political heavyweight in West Asia.

“We want to give a new impetus to our relations and return them to the same high level that used to exist with the Soviet Union,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. He made the weighty remark after holding talks on Thursday with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Mr. Fahmy’s comments suggest that the time had arrived to revive the once thriving politico-military relationship between Moscow and Cairo, which had been disrupted by Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s former President, who chose to become a U.S. ally in the heat of the Cold War.

While evoking nostalgic memories of a bygone era of special ties, Mr. Fahmy cautioned that the Egyptian foreign policy would not be a zero sum game, despite the re-discovery of an old ally. “Cairo wants to intensify relations. But they won’t be alternative to anyone,” he stressed. Mr. Fahmy seemed to address the speculation that the relationship with Washington — a top Egyptian ally for three decades — was on a downward spiral, after the military toppled the elected President Mohamed Morsy in July.

#95 ZOO pushing the “victories” of the forces directed and sponsored by Iran, the occupying power in Syria.

ZOO is so PROUD of the “leadership” of Iran. He is pleased by the way it crushes, robs and deprives the people of Iran (even enriching itself at ordinary Iranian’s expense during the sanctions). And elated that those resources enable it to prey on Syria and support the Shia push for supremacy.

“Bashar is here to stay until he and he only decides if he wants to ask for another term. They better get uses to that, you too.”

Syria is NOT his for him to decide whether to rule it or not!

And it was HIS actions that caused the misery Syria sees it self in. Anything else is just a sad and pathetic attempt at obfuscating the truth.

Him and his ilk labelled anyone defying him an infiltrator and mowed down those that rose against him. Even you’ve labelled those that documented the crimes he and his henchmen have done as traitors that deserve the torture and humiliation they received in the Assadi dungeons.

Who are you trying to fool with your lies and twists?

You used to pretend the videos coming out of Syria proving the monstrous acts of the Assadi thugs as fake, and claim that you don’t watch those clips. As if pretending you did not see them will somehow nullify them.

You keep jabbering about the Saudis and their track record while ignoring the simple facts that those bedouins went from tents 60 years ago to the most powerful economy in the middle east. While Syrians at the hands of the baathists went from a civilized nation to millions of its inhabitants living in tents in the middle of the desert.

“The Syrians may not have the money but they have skills, brain and resilience.
I have no worry they will manage very well after this disastrous adventure”

As long as Syria is ruled by the Baathist backwardness known as Thouria Al-Athad then Syria is guaranteed to fail even further. For Besho and his gang of idiots are a bottomless pit with no rock bottom. The sooner Syria is expunged from this poison the sooner those skills, brains, and resilience be put to furthering Syrias future and not the Assadi scum that have robbed Syria.

It’s interesting to consider that ZOO and co not only have a contempt and indifference for the people of Syria, but they also have an identical attitude to the majority of the population of Iran.

And GHUFRAN #26, goes nod, nod, nod casually about the articles I’ve linked above. Yes, the Iranian regime may be rotten in the way they rob and exploit their own citizens, but then it’s nothing and normal, and anyway so do all the Gulf states, GHUFRAN assures us.

“The Syrians may not have the money but they have skills, brain and resilience.”

Which is why it has been necessary for the group of criminals who illegally seized power in 1970 to control Syrians and their country’s resources by means of terror and corruption with the help of 15 security services.

And one thing we know for sure, looking at how Assad misrule has denied Syrians the opportunity for social, economic, political and most other forms of development with a tragic waste of human resources, is that the Assad regime DOES NOT have skills, brains and resilience.

And which is why, of course “Syrians [do] not have the money”.

SAMI puts it very well in #98. Just imagine if Syrians had been allowed the freedom, dignity, security and opportunities of other people!

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured on Friday the last of three towns on the south-eastern approaches of Aleppo, state television said, advancing on the city after similar gains around the capital Damascus this week.

Aleppo, Syria’s commercial hub and biggest city before the uprising against Assad erupted in 2011, has been partly held by Sunni rebels and foreign jihadi fighters for more than a year.

But Assad’s army, backed by Shi’ite Lebanese Hezbollah officers and Iraqi militias, has been regaining territory around Aleppo and Damascus to the south, strengthening the president’s hand ahead of proposed, but long-delayed, peace talks in Geneva.

State television aired a report on Friday it said was filmed in the center of the town of Tel Hasel, 10 km (6 miles) south-east of Aleppo. Black smoke was seen in the background.

The town is the third on the road to Aleppo to be taken by Assad’s forces this month after the capture of Safira, close to a former chemical weapons site, and Tel Arn.

Its capture helps secure army control south of Aleppo airport, which has been closed to most civilian flights since rebels fired at a plane last year, just a week after soldiers drove rebels from a base on the airport’s northern perimeter.

I was responding to Hopeful who was trying to show that the Gulf countries are a beacon in culture and human rights.

I was talking about what is the role of the Arabic Gulf countries in what is going on in Syria?

We are not talking here about Shia and Iran. The topic is Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the rest of those people living around the gulf.

As for the Shia: the Shia always wanted a place to live and be able to do what they want. They were oppressed from day one by the Sunnis who had the power to do so.

The Shia were never able to be the masters of their own destiny except since the Safawi Iran till now, but only in limited areas.

As for Syria: The Shia of Syria were killed and reduced to very little numbers through out the years.

The Shia were always the defeated party. They have no rights in almost every Arabic country till not to long ago. Look at the history of the Shia in Iraq, what you Sunnis did to them is known. The same goes to the Shia in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. People with no rights. Did you see one suicide bomber from those yet?

There is no Shia extremism, there is a Shia agenda. Extremism is a Sunni trademark. Shia’s extremism may be loving Ali too much or loving his family too much and believing that they are right and everyone else is wrong. But still there is no violent calls for the take over of the world the Sunnis want and always talk about. There is a very aggressive agenda with Sunnism. Shiism does not have this.

Your video is just a smoke screen. Yes, they have some kids who went to the West and want to emulate what you could see on a Western TV show, but reality is different. Sudia Arabia and the rest of the gulf states did not develop because development means human rights and the rule of law. These countries are still ruled by families, and they are farms for these families. Yes, they send some kids to American and British Universities, and now they are bringing American Universities to Saudi Arabia and Qatar: But: that does not mean we do not see the real behind this glossy exterior.

Aslo: what type of Agenda these people are pushing in Syria? Is it a liberal agenda? or a sectarian one? Is Syria these days the location where Saudia Arabia and the rest of the Gulf countries are settling their vindictive sectarian grudge with Iran?